Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to help encourage employers to provide high quality apprenticeships.

The department wants more employers to offer high-quality apprenticeships. We are increasing funding for apprenticeships in England to £2.7 billion by the 2024/25 financial year. Employers who pay the apprenticeship levy can make use of their levy funds, topped up by 10% by the government, to fund apprenticeship training and assessment in their businesses, and smaller employers can reserve funding for up to 10 new apprenticeships.

We are encouraging the use of more flexible training models, such as accelerated and flexi-job apprenticeships, so that employers in all sectors can benefit from apprenticeships and apprentices can attain occupational competence as quickly as possible. We also continue to make improvements to the apprenticeship levy transfer system to make it easier for large employers to make full use of their levy funds and support starts in their supply chain, sector, or local area, and to support more employers, including SMEs, to meet local or sectorial skills needs

We want to make sure that every apprentice has a high-quality experience. To achieve this, we are further improving quality by investing in a comprehensive package of professional development for apprenticeship training providers and their workforces, and by giving employers the tools, advice, and direction they need to provide high-quality experiences for their apprentices.